Abstract

Here, we report the gigahertz-rate modulation of a tunable terahertz carrier. Terahertz radiation, tunable from 300 GHz to 1.2 THz, is generated by mixing two telecom lasers with an offset frequency in an ultrafast photoconductive device coupled to a broadband antenna. The microwave modulation applied to the telecom lasers is directly transferred to the terahertz carrier. A maximum modulation rate of 20 GHz has been achieved, and the bandwidth is independent of the carrier frequency.

Received 31 August 2008Accepted 09 September 2008Published online 03 October 2008

Acknowledgments:

The authors would like to thank C. Boukari from CSNSM in Orsay for ion irradiation and J. F. Lampin from IEMN for fruitful discussion. This work has been carried out in the frame of the french RTB network. R.C. acknowledges support from the EURYI scheme award.